Spent nuclear fuel that has been used in commercial nuclear reactors actually has a large amount of potential energy that is just waiting to be harvested while simultaneously dealing with the problem of the dangerous radioactivity level of that “waste” fuel. However, since in a traditional nuclear reactor process only 4% of the original fuel load has typically been consumed, the radioactive decomposition of the constituents of the spent fuel (assumed to be radioactive “waste” under current processes) tends to be slow and hence is not harnessed for energy production. But because the half-life of these “waste” radioactive components is not short, the fuel must be stored for very long periods in a manner to protect the public from these radioactive byproducts of the energy producing nuclear reactors.
Currently, the spent nuclear fuel and its byproducts tend to be stored on the site of the nuclear plants, in a heat-absorbing manner such as in a water filled “pond”, for example, that was designed to be used temporarily. Originally it was intended that a central repository be found for storing such nuclear waste for the long term (i.e., thousands of years), but such central storage has proven to be a political mine-field, with the NIMBI effect leading to no acceptable storage location being implemented. Hence, the spent fuel languishes in the “temporary” storage facilities with no foreseeable solution. But such spent fuel actually provides a large opportunity to further generate electricity if an effective and efficient means of tapping into the remaining radioactive potential energy can be found.
Dielectric wall accelerators are known that can be used to generate useful gamma rays. Such accelerators can provide energy or particle beams of very high energy densities that can impact nuclear reactions in radioactive substances. Generally, however, the practical use of such devices is lacking.
Hence, since the nuclear electrical generation industry has had a problem maximizing the extraction of energy from the nuclear fuel used in nuclear reactors, and has had difficulty satisfactorily disposing of spent fuel rods and other byproducts of nuclear reactors, which contain large amounts of potential energy that is not being utilized along with dangerous levels of radioactivity that can be dangerous if not properly handled or disposed of, a means of solving this problem using energy beams is desirable.